I recently finished reading Jim Alampi’s new book, Great To Excellent; It’s the Execution! I have known Jim for a number of years as he has guided me and my management teams through what some people call “strategic planning.” Jim calls it the “Execution Roadmap” because it is all about getting things done, rather than just planning to get things done.

I particularly liked one brief chapter entitled “Your ‘Stop-Doing’ List is More Important than Any ‘To-Do’ List.”

Here is the entire chapter. (I love how Jim is so concise!)

Members of senior management are notoriously poor at identifying things they should stop doing. We typically keep adding more and more to our plates, requiring longer hours and more heroic efforts. I don’t know about you, but when I hit 27-hour days, I lose a little productivity!

It is amazing what happens when we empower and encourage our employees to identify things they should stop doing. You may not agree with all of them, but it’s amazing how many people spend time creating computer reports for people who stopped reading or needing them years ago! Companies and employees usually have plenty of time to do the work required, if they would only stop doing things that were necessary once but are no longer needed or add value to the operation.

So my question for you is: “What can you STOP DOING in order to be more productive?” Anyone care to share your answers?